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MMD > Archives > December 2002 > 2002.12.19 > 14Prev  Next


Regulating Duo-Art Expression Dynamically
By Ellsworth Johnson

Duo Art owners -- I have some information that, if there is any
interest, I will be happy to pass along exactly how to do same of what
I discovered back in the 1960s when I restored quite a few Steinway
Duo-Art reproducers and numerous other brands of Duo-Art pianos.

Basically what this info amounts to is that the adjustments shown in
the manuals are what I would call static adjustments and if you fine
tune the adjustments (which I refer to as dynamic adjustment) you would
be quite amazed at the difference in performance.

My friend Gerald Stonehill of London, England, and myself exchanged a
good deal of correspondence back in the 1960s on this subject via audio
tape.  (I still have  the audio tapes from Gerald.)  Gerald was the
expert and I was the student.  Even today he is considered a foremost
authority on the Duo-Art system.  And I believe he owns the largest
Duo-Art roll collection in the world.  There are some CDs on the market
on the Nimbus label out of England that he was very involved with in
recent years and are all from Duo-Art rolls.  They are called "Grand
Piano Series" in the event anyone wants to search for them.  I have
more info about those CDs if anyone is interested.

Ellsworth Johnson
Spokane, WA

P.S. Take a look at page 306 in Bowers' "Encyclopedia Of Automatic
Musical Instruments".  This is the Steinway Duo-Art I used to own and
now is owned by Ed Chaban, MMD member.  I adjusted the accordions on
this piano to the dynamic ranges described above and it really sounded
great.


(Message sent Thu 19 Dec 2002, 18:50:52 GMT, from time zone GMT-0800.)

Key Words in Subject:  Duo-Art, Dynamically, Expression, Regulating

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